Abstract

Here, we present an approach to laser ablation ICP-MS mapping of multi-phase assemblages that permits the use of different internal standard elements, concentration values and reference materials for each mineral. In this way, we obtain not only broad pictures of elemental distributions within samples but can also extract high accuracy concentration data for any user-selected region. This is accomplished by assigning regions of an image to corresponding mineral phases on a pixel-by-pixel basis. In this way, accurate trace element concentrations can be determined for each mineral phase, despite potential variations in their ablation characteristics. We present an example where elemental maps are constructed from ablation of a gabbroic sample that includes the phases apatite, amphibole and plagioclase. This work represents an important first step towards development of a method to produce highly accurate LA-ICP-MS elemental maps of multi-phase samples.

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